Chuck Homan, 64, who has a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, recently was acquitted of two misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana. His attorney said his acquittal rested on Homan's "justification" of using marijuana to control his manic depression may be a first in Pennsylvania.(Photo11: Chris Dunn &#8212; Daily Record&#47;Sunday News)

Charles "Chuck" Homan needs his marijuana. For him, he says, it's a matter of life or death.

He recently used that argument successfully in York County court. His testimony, and that of a psychiatrist who reviewed 30 years of Homan's medical records, convinced a judge that Homan's use of marijuana to control his manic depression brought on by his bipolar 1 syndrome outweighed the fact that marijuana possession is illegal in Pennsylvania.

"Every person out there with a life-threatening disease, now has a defense. And hope," said Homan, who has lobbied for the legalization of medical marijuana for years.

Homan's defense attorney, Chris Ferro, also a proponent of medical marijuana, believes the reasoning behind the acquittal of the Glenville man — a justification argument — could be the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.

A retired slate roofer, Homan was busted in Hanover on Aug. 30, 2014 as he was heading to a wedding with his wife.

That was really nothing new to Homan, 64. He's been popped before for possession of marijuana, and for growing it.

This last time was when Hanover Borough Police Officer Ryan Henry found himself behind the Homans' car. He wrote in his criminal complaint that he could smell marijuana. Then, he stated, he saw the front seat passenger blowing smoke out the window.

Henry pulled the car over. Homan admitted on the spot to smoking marijuana and handed over a pipe. In the ensuing search, Henry found marijuana and hashish, according to his complaint.

Homan recently recalled the incident.

He said he usually doesn't smoke in town, but will on back roads. He said they were running a little late that day and he had not had time to smoke earlier.

He said he was almost done with the bowl, and rather than waste what was left, he puffed away to clean the pipe out, blowing smoke out the window.

His wife, Rayna Homan, laughed when she said she looked in the rearview mirror and told her husband, "Oh no. There's a cop right behind us. I can't believe you did that."

Having previously been found guilty of possessing marijuana, Homan, in fact, was still on probation.

Ferro said that there would be no dire legal consequences for Homan if he was found guilty again. But, Ferro said, this time Homan wanted to take it to a jury trial.

"I tried to talk him out of it," Ferro said. "He convinced me. He wore me down. He wanted to tell his story."

Homan said he wanted a trial "because I'm not a criminal in any way, shape or form."

No relief from doctors' orders

For most of his life, Homan said, he had chronic insomnia. It was as an adult, about 30 years ago, that he was diagnosed with bipolar 1 syndrome, which manifested in lengthy bouts of manic depression. Homan said he would turn into the Hulk.

He said he took every drug doctors prescribed. Few gave any relief and none worked long term. Some even put him into a depression, he said.

Homan said he was having manic bouts every two weeks while on the drugs.

He said it was after a weeks-long bout of depression around 2001 when he turned to marijuana. He said he was trying to wean himself off of prescribed sleeping medications that he had become addicted to but that did not work.

"I had a job to run," he said. "I was laying in bed. My head hurts, my stomach hurts. I couldn't function, I couldn't work."

Homan said that first time he smoked marijuana, which was in college, he felt sleepy and hungry, two sensations he had rarely felt in his life.

Homan explained he smokes on a regular basis to keep the Cannabidiol, or CBD, at a steady level in his system to stave off manic episodes. He said he doesn't believe he has ever gotten "high."

"I'm not even sure what that means," he said.

Homan said he has used medical marijuana that is legal in other states. When he cannot obtain that, he resorts to smoking.

Justification defense

When Homan pushed for the jury trial hoping to get a sympathetic jury, the prosecution dropped a charge of possession of paraphernalia, forcing Homan to settle for a bench trial. Misdemeanor marijuana possession does not qualify for a jury trial.

And, at his Aug. 6 trial, senior prosecutor Sarah Buhite asked Homan, who testified in his own defense, if he was suffering from a manic attack when he was caught smoking in Hanover.

"I said, 'No. It doesn't work that way,'" Homan said. "Once you go into a depression, no amount of marijuana is going to help."

After hearing from Homan and the expert who reviewed his medical history, Judge Thomas H. Kelley VI found Homan not guilty of possession.

Ferro said his argument was based on the "justification" of Homan possessing marijuana. He said it was Homan's "attempt to avoid the greater danger — suicide" by breaking the law by smoking marijuana.

Ferro said he had compared it to battered woman syndrome, where a wife shoots her sleeping, abusive husband in the head.

Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon and part of York County, who has sponsored a medical marijuana bill, did not respond to a request for comment.

"The safest drug on the planet"

Ferro said he was concerned that Homan might be "putting a target on his back" by talking publicly about his trial.

Homan said he is worried about law enforcement. But, he said, "A lot of people that were suffering as bad as I am are dead. I don't want to end up like Robin Williams or family and friends."

Homan said he was the granduncle of Jesse Leipold, the man who was shot outside Adams County Prison after forcing police into an armed standoff and later died.

"He was in a state of mania," Homan said.

He also said he was friends with a woman who hung herself in her garage after asking her husband to take their children out for an hour to give her some peace and quiet. The woman also had turned to marijuana to treat a debilitating disease, Homan said.

After three months, for reasons of her own, she stopped using marijuana and returned to her prescribed medications.

Homan said one of the woman's young daughters asked, "Why did mommy stop taking her medicine?"

"They saw her marijuana as her medicine and the girl said it was best three months of their lives. She was active, she could do things, she could be a mom," he said.

"That's what I mean by family and friends."

To Homan, being able to use marijuana to ease his depression is both a moral and religious issue. He said he believes God put marijuana on earth to help people like him and for the government to deny him "the safest drug on the planet" is immoral.

As for his acquittal, Homan, a Mormon, said, "I thank my heavenly Saviour first and foremost. I thank the judge for his courage.

"And, it doesn't hurt to have the best lawyer in the country."

Contact Rick Lee at 717-495-1782.

More on medical marijuana

To see more YDR coverage of the medical marijuana issue, visit goo.gl/C5Qegf.